“Kimberly Laine McAdams. You can’t go off with some biker you spoke to for five minutes in a bar and not expect us to be worried sick.”
“Oh my god. This isn’t Kenny. It’s Mom sounding like Kenny.”
“That’s not fucking funny.”
“No, it isn’t.” She hit the mute button. “Raze. Do you ride a bike?”
He glanced at her with brows raised.
“You know,” she elaborated. “Like a Harley.”
His grin flashed fierce and sexy as hell. “Heritage Softail.”
“Shit.” So he was a biker after all. The thought made her hot and needy. Kim took the phone off mute. “I’m a big girl, Kenny.”
“Who is still dealing with walking into the murder scene of her best friend!” Ken growled and in her mind’s eye she could see him fisting his dark hair with his free hand and clenching his jaw. “You’re not the only one who’s freaked by what happened to Janelle. I worry about you all the damn time. You need to give me a break, Kim. Stop giving me gray hair. Now what’s this guy’s name?”
“Why so you can run him? Do you do a run on all your one-night-stands?”
“You’re not the one-night-stand type.”
“I am tonight. I’ll call you when I get home tomorrow. And tell Delia I’m gonna to kick her ass.” She hung up, then powered her phone off.
“Everything all right?” Raze adjusted his position so that he was propped against pillows piled against the headboard. Sprawled like that he was a sensual feast.
God. He was just what she’d needed. What she still needed.
She tossed her phone back in her bag and pulled his shirt over her head. “Everything’s great. And about to get better.”
CHAPTER 5
Raze looked at the video feed of a blackish rose arrangement perched on Vash’s desk and pronounced, “Creepy.”
“They’re for you.” She pushed them aside. “Salem found them on your porch about a half hour ago. No card, but we know who it’s from, don’t we?”
“Yeah, we do.”
“She’s his wife, by the way. Of a couple hundred years. Torque traced Baron-previously known as John Schmidt, Baron Seagrave in his mortal life-back to the Regency period, when he married Lady Francesca Harlow.”
“Torque’s the man.”
“Yes, he is. And you’re dealing with a woman who just lost the love of her life.” Vash’s fingers drummed on the table. “Take it from a woman who knows what that feels like: She wants your head on a pike and your nuts roasting on an open fire. She won’t let this go until one of you is dead.”
“I’m ready and waiting.” He glanced out the window at the gradually lightening dawn sky, then over at the closed bedroom door. “But I might be waiting in the wrong place if she’s gone to Raceport.”
“Torque traced the roses back to a florist in Chicago. If she did her homework at all, she’ll know you’re hanging around there. But she doesn’t know where. She’s hoping this’ll rattle your cage a little.”
“I’ll get out more today. Be seen. I don’t suppose we’d be lucky enough to have confirmation that the baroness is the woman in the video. A photo match, maybe?”
“Working on it.” Vash rocked back in her desk chair. “Listen, I know you like to do your loner thing, but I’d feel better if you had some backup.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ve got this.”
“When I find the bastards who killed Charron, an army isn’t going to save them. Hell hath no fury like a woman whose mate has been stolen from her. You can’t understand. You haven’t been there. You don’t know what you’re up against.”
Raze’s hands fisted. “I’ve. Got. This.”
“Fine.” She tossed up her hands. “Watch your stubborn ass. I can’t afford to lose you.”
She ended transmission, leaving him feeling pissed off and resentful. He was sick of everyone acting like there was an exclusive club that he was denied membership in.
He moved back into the bedroom and slid between the sheets, careful not to wake Kim, who slept soundly. Lying face down with her hair fanned across her back and her face turned toward him, she soothed his agitation without even trying. He wasn’t used to having someone sleep over like this. Because he didn’t need sleep himself, having a lover stay the night just invited questions he couldn’t answer.
Regardless, he wouldn’t have let Kim go home even if she’d wanted to. He could tell himself it was because it wasn’t safe for her to go out by herself at night. After all, the last woman to leave his bed had found a dead body on the doorstep. He could also tell himself it was because he hadn’t fed from her yet, but then he’d have to examine why he’d held back. To create just this excuse, maybe?
Reaching out, he pushed her hair gently aside and ran his fingertips up and down the graceful curve of her spine. She was so slender and delicate, yet strong and lithe. Her body had worked tirelessly through the night, taking what he gave her and giving it right back to him. When she’d risen over him and rocked her body onto his, he’d fisted the sheets against the pleasure, his neck arching as she took him to the edge and beyond. It had been a very long time since anything had felt that good.
Raze exhaled harshly, fighting the onslaught of renewed desire. He’d had her enough already. She wasn’t a vampire who could heal quick enough to avoid being sore.
“Umm…” she purred. “You have the best hands.”
That soft humming noise of pleasure was the death of all his good intentions. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “I want you.”
“Yes, please.”
He laughed, which made her smile and roll to her back, revealing the small breasts he’d played with most of the night. She was revising everything he’d thought he knew about his preferences and desires. He ran the tip of his finger around a pale pink areola. “I love your tits.”
“Oh, these things? I’ve had them forever.”
Grinning, he bent over her and took her mouth, slanting his head to get the perfect fit. Kissing was another surprise. He hadn’t realized he liked it so much.
He was going to like drinking of her even more.
This time, he wouldn’t hold back. The morning was here; their night together was almost over. In a few hours, he’d be out hunting and she’d return to life as she knew it.
Raze slid over her and pushed his arms beneath her. It amazed him that a body so much smaller than his could fit so perfectly. He should have felt like a great, hulking beast on top of her, but he didn’t. He should have worried about how he handled her and made an effort to restrain himself, but there were none of those types of concerns or awkwardness between them. It was all so easy. So natural.
Her leg lifted and her foot stroked up and down his calf. Her arms hooked upward beneath his, her hands stroking over the back of his shaved head. He’d never considered his scalp an erogenous zone before, but she made it so. Every inch of his skin was sensitive to her touch, heating and tingling as her fingertips caressed him. She handled him with the care he might have shown her-as if he was delicate and precious.
Her tongue licked across his and he groaned, remembering the feel of it across other places on his body. She gave pleasure with as much abandon as she took it, and he let her. He couldn’t help it. Everything she did to him was perfect, circumventing his brain and taking him to that place where he was more animal than man-a creature of sensation and need.
Sliding down, he nuzzled briefly against her throat, then moved lower. He teased her nipples with sweeping brushes of his parted lips and soft, gentle licks. Kim whimpered and tugged his head closer, silently urging him to suckle her, which he would not do. The tender tips were already swollen and he wouldn’t hurt her, even if she considered the pleasure worth the pain. Instead he worried the tiny hardened point with the tip of his tongue,
